


Of Dancing Shoes and Toy Guns

by TitaniaSarys



Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon), Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 3 year-old Natasha, Age Regression/De-Aging, Avengers Tower, Bad Ideas, Clint has to translate, Kid Natasha Romanov, Natasha is a troublemaker, Natasha is unbearable, Natasha wants a gun, Natasha wants to fly, Protective Avengers, The Avengers are not good babysitters, The Avengers don't know what to do, Trouble, Trouble at the Tower, dancing shoes, pew pew, toy guns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-06-08 23:06:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6878494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TitaniaSarys/pseuds/TitaniaSarys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a surprise attack on Avengers Tower, Natasha is reduced to her 3 year-old self. Will the Avengers be able to handle her? Just to give you a clue: she's fast, likes to cause trouble and only speaks Russian. Also, Clint has to translate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I just saw this picture and I got so inspired (found it on tumblr so I don't know who made it but it wasn't me).

 

Everything was quiet at Avengers Tower. Scratch that. Everything was normal at Avengers Tower.

Thor, Hawkeye and Hulk were played video games on the couch and acting like cavemen around a bonfire. Thor’s and the Hulk’s voices were especially loud and if she wasn’t used to it, Natasha would have gotten frustrated. But they just came back from an exhausting mission and after taking a good bath, all that Natasha needed was a good drink.

So she had helped herself in Tony’s bar. Steve and Tony had even joined her. Steve to make small talk and Tony to grab a whisky before heading for the lab because he had some tinkering to do. He promised he would be back soon though. Falcon was already in the lab working on whatever they were working on at the time and Natasha just prayed that it wouldn’t cause the end of the world. Earth had almost been destroyed once, that was enough for her lifetime. Steve remained on edge because, although they had managed to get along with the Thunderbolts, Baron Zemo was still out there according to Steve.

“I mean, we’ve only found his sword. I once thought that Red Skull was dead but he came back! Same thing with Thanos. Zemo could be back.”

Natasha sighed and resumed her shaking. Once the cocktail was ready, she poured it in two triangular glasses and slipped a cliché umbrella in each.

“You know I can’t get drunk, right?” Steve asked, still clad in his Captain America outfit while Natasha wore a black tank top and red shorts to be cozier. Her catsuit was comfortable, yes, but after a day of hard work, she had gladly peeled it off.

“That doesn’t mean you can’t share a drink with me!” she smiled mischievously as she said that and gently touched her glass to his.

He eyed the contents of the glass before taking a sip and nodding. “It’s not bad.” Natasha was about to answer a sarcastic remark when Clint suddenly yelled of frustration at his two comrades in play.

“It’s not fair! How can you beat me with your big fingers!” he yelled as he stood up on the couch to be as tall as the Hulk. Bruce was able to control his transformation but he had kept it for a while, saying that it felt good to let the big guy take over for a while. “Hey, what’s this?” Clint said as he pointed at something outside the tower. Some kind of robot was flying in front of the thick glass panels that led to the landing platform.

Before anyone could guess, a machine gun appeared under the robot and it fired directly at the Avengers. “Take cover!” Cap yelled as he jumped behind the bar counter with Natasha. Once the first round was over, Steve came out from behind the bar and ran towards the robot, his shield raised in front of him. There was broken glass everywhere and the couch had been flipped over: Hulk, Thor and Clint were hiding behind it. Tony and Sam had probably been alerted by Friday by now.

Clint also got out of his hiding spot and shot an arrow at the robot as it was pulling another gun out. Steve stopped running and gripped his shield tighter, expecting bullets to come flying at him since the gun was aimed in his direction. Instead, something was shot but whizzed above him and exploded behind the counter, producing a small cloud of yellow gas.

“Tasha!” Steve yelled but the robot fired again and so he had to protect himself. By the time the second round of bullets was over and the empty mag fell on the terrace, the yellow gas had disappeared. Thor destroyed the robot with lightning and it crashed near the landing platform. Sam and Tony entered the living room at that moment and saw the damage.

“What happened?” Tony asked, his Iron Man armor on.

“That thing happened!” Clint said as he put his purple glasses straight and motioned to the fried robot that was occasionally producing a half-hearted spark. Steve had already reached the counter and was looking for Natasha.

“Is anybody hurt?” Tony asked.

“Oh my goodness,” was all Steve said. Everyone turned their heads towards him as Cap fell to the floor, a look of utter surprise on his face. They all gathered around the bar counter and peeked over it.

Natasha’s clothes were on the floor, all of them: tank top, red shorts and even black lace underwear. But instead of the Russian spy there was a little girl that swam in the said clothes. The Avengers couldn’t believe their eyes. But the red hair was unmistakable.

“Oh boy…” was all Tony could say.


	2. I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For translations see notes at the end of this chapter.

The little girl was struggling in the wide clothes, they could all see that but they were too stunned to move. Clint’s glasses had fallen and his mouth was so open it might reach the ground. Hulk just stood there, all green and muscular, like a statue. Thor lowered his hammer but looked as dumb founded as the rest of them. Tony’s mouth hung a little higher than Clint’s. Steve was still on his butt next to the counter and Sam’s eyes were so wide they might pop out at any moment.

All the while, the little girl whined and wriggled on the ground. Thor was the first to recover and he put Mjolnir on the bar counter where the two triangular glasses had been reduced to glass debris. Then he picked the girl up and every piece of clothing fell to the ground except the tank top that somehow had stuck itself around the girl’s body. Every Avenger blushed when their eyes fell on the lacy lingerie Natasha had worn. Thankfully, the girl was too young to have developed woman assets.

“What do we do with this child? If she truly is our dear friend Widow, we have to find a way to return her to her true self,” Thor’s booming voice got the girl’s attention and she looked at him. Her red hair was wavy and reached her shoulders. Her eyes were dark and sullen but also mischievous.

She started wiggling in Thor’s arms and yelled: “Oпусти меня!” again and again.

“What is she saying?” Tony asked.

Somehow, the girl’s screaming had brought everyone out of their confusion.

“I do not speak this language,” Thor said and kept the girl at arms’ length, as if she might suddenly puke on him.

“Clint, don’t you speak Russian? Because that sounds like Russian to me,” Steve said.

“Well, I know a few words… Tasha taught me a few things but…”

“Well do your best!” Thor said as he swung the girl right in front of Clint. The movement was so sudden, the girl stopped screaming with her high pitched voice so unlike Natasha’s and grabbed Thor’s big hands for balance. The tank top was hanging just below her knees and she resumed her kicking and screaming. Clint forced himself to listen instead of blocking his ears.

“Oпусти меня! Oпусти меня! Oпусти меня!” The girl screamed, louder and louder every time.

“I think she wants you to put her down or something like that,” Clint said and he pushed his purple glasses back on his nose.

Thor gently lowered the girl but as soon as her bare feet touched the ground, she dashed between their legs like a wild puppy. Steve’s eyes widened when he added two and two: there was a lot of broken glass and mini-Natasha was running around with barely anything on.

“Hulk, catch her before she hurts herself!” The Hulk groaned but he had seen the glass too and tried to catch mini-Natasha but it was easier said than done. She wasn’t screaming anymore, she was laughing, clearly finding a big green guy chasing her very funny. Every time the Hulk thought he had managed to catch her, she slipped under his fingers and pulled out her tongue at him. She mostly stayed at the same place and found it funny to annoy him by running around his legs. It was starting to drive him mad.

After another round of giggles, Hulk roared to the ceiling: “NOT FUNNY!” Mini-Natasha yelped, suddenly scared and skittered away from him, running right through the path where the broken glass was. One of the shards embedded itself in her foot and she fell to the floor, crying. The Hulk picked her up and she sat in one of his big hands. She cried as loud as she had screamed and all the Avengers decided to take her to the lab.

Once there, Sam proceeded to take the shard out and bandaged her foot. Luckily, the cut wasn’t very deep. During the entire time Sam was working on her foot, Clint stood behind him and made a fool of himself by making funny faces. It made mini-Natasha laugh and she stopped crying. She even clasped enthusiastically in front of the entertainment. Once Sam was done, all the Avengers gathered around the examination table and looked at the girl as if she was a stray kitten one of them just brought home.

“How old is she, do you think?” Sam asked while Tony ordered Friday to run some tests. Mini-Natasha stayed calm and carefully held her foot in front of her, touching the white bandage before swiftly taking her hand away when it hurt. Her eyes were dark again, almost as if she had been born an evil spy.

“Friday says that her body is that of a three and a half year old. Her DNA shows that she’s still Natasha. But somehow she has de-aged. Biologically speaking, she’s the exact same Natasha she was at three and a half years old,” Tony answered.

“When was she at the time?” Steve asked as he crossed his arms on his chest. Mini-Natasha looked at him and also crossed her arms, mimicking his movements and even adopting the same serious face. Steve didn’t notice but Clint sniggered.

“There’s isn’t much about her past in her files. I don’t even know when exactly she was taken in by the Red Room,” Tony sighed. Mini-Natasha sighed too and put her arms along her sides, just like Tony did.

“Stop laughing, this is serious!” Sam said to Clint who could barely hold it together.

“That’s our Natasha alright! She’s got her feisty personality,” Clint said.

“But does she have her memories? And training?” Steve asked then turned to Tony, uncrossing one of his buff arms and opening his hand while he spoke. “I mean, you said she was biologically speaking the same as when she was three. Which means…”

Mini-Natasha mimicked his hand movement. “That her cerebral development is also that of a child. Her memories are limited and her skills, well, I’d say they are inexistent. She spoke in Russian and doesn’t seem to understand us at all, so it’s only logical,” Tony explained and the girl mimicked his movements again.

“The Red Room took her when she was eight,” Clint spoke next, his face suddenly serious. He closed his eyes for a brief moment. “Tasha didn’t say much about her past before SHIELD but she dropped a few things now and then. She was raised by a Soviet soldier after her parents died in a fire in St-Petersburg. The Red Room took her when she was eight but observed her before that.”

“So she’s probably used to being followed and watched,” Steve concluded and they all looked at the girl sitting in front of them, still tangled a bit in the tank top.

Suddenly, the girl seemed to remember something. She didn’t scream but let out in a small voice: “Где дядя Иван?” It was barely audible, but Clint caught it and sighed.

“She’s asking where is her uncle Ivan. He’s probably the soldier that raised her, I think that’s the name Nat mentioned a couple of times.”

Mini-Natasha shivered and started crying again, but it was softer and almost like a whisper, as if she was trying to hide her sobs. Sam took her in his arms. “Awww, come on Nat! It’s going to be alright!” She gripped his Falcon outfit in her tiny fists and sniffed in his shoulder. She weighed almost nothing. Sam turned so that she could see the other Avengers. “We’ll figure this out.”

Clint approached her and smiled. “Все будет хорошo,” he said with a thick American accent. Sam traced soothing circles on her back and rocked her. Slowly her eyes fell and soon after she drifted to sleep, still clutching his uniform.

“Well that was easy,” the Hulk let out.

“We should all take a good night’s sleep. Enough craziness for one day,” Tony said, rubbing his tired eyes. “We’ll clean in the morning and we’ll figure this all out too. So, in whose room is she sleeping? Because we can’t leave her alone.”

“I’ll take her,” Sam said. “She seems to trust me.”

Tony nodded. “I’ll ask Friday to watch over and alert you if anything happens.” He then put his helmet back on.

“And where might you be going?” Clint asked.

“She’ll need some kid’s clothes tomorrow. I’ll make a quick trip to the mall and bring a few things. Maybe also a few toys to keep her busy.”

“Then try to find a wolf plush toy. Nat said that was the only thing she had left from Ivan but that she lost it when she escaped from the KGB,” Clint added. Tony left and they all spent the evening quietly. Sam fell asleep next to her on his big bed but he was careful not to touch her. He also left a small dim light on just in case she woke up. When Tony was done shopping, he left everything in Sam’s room, next to the door and smiled when he saw mini-Natasha’s face. She seemed so peaceful without all the horrors that happened when she was older. At that age, she was still pure and innocent. Before heading to bed, Tony promised himself he’d find a way to return her to her normal self the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oпусти меня! (opusti minia) - Put me down!
> 
> Где дядя Иван? (gdie diadia ivan) - Where is uncle Ivan?
> 
> Все будет хорошo (vsie budiet harasho) - Everything will be alright.


	3. II

Friday’s voice woke Tony up at 6 am. “Sir, I am sorry to interrupt your rest, but this is an emergency.”

“What is it Friday?” Tony said as he sat in his king size bed and sleepily rubbed his eyes.

“Sir, I believe that young Miss Romanoff is about to attempt something possibly dangerous and…” the AI was interrupted by loud crashing noises. Tony immediately jumped to his feet.

“What in the universe just happened Friday?” Tony asked the AI as he bolted out of his room. The crashing noises had come from the other end of the floor, from the living room where the attack had taken place the day before and where the bar and kitchen were. As Tony was running in the corridor, Sam came out of his room.

“Oh my god Tony! Nat is…”

“Gone, I know.”

“What was that noise?” Sam asked, confused but he followed Tony.

“Her, probably, although I hope it’s the Hulk that wanted to make himself a sandwich and broke the pickle jar again,” Stark said through gritted teeth. Steve and Clint joined them on the way, the other two Avengers also suddenly awakened by the noise. Thor and Banner were nowhere to be seen.

When the four Avengers entered the living room, the kitchen was a mess. Some of the drawers were open, a couple of glasses were broken to pieces on the floor and fruit had rolled off the kitchen counter. Tony carefully approached the kitchen counter, looking for a clump of red hair hiding somewhere. Clint bent down and grabbed from the floor a glass jar that had miraculously stayed intact.

“Well, I think we can say she was after the peanut butter,” Clint said, showing them the label and Tony immediately looked at where the jar had been: in one of the high shelves.

He sighed. “Luckily, she didn’t find the Hulk’s secret cookie jar.”

“Hulk has a secret cookie jar? Where is it?” Clint asked immediately.

“It’s called ‘ _secret’_ for a reason, Hawkeye. Anyway, let’s find Nat,” Sam said.

“She was definitely here,” Steve said. He let his fingers wonder on the kitchen counter where red streaks could be seen. “Don’t tell me you bought her colored pencils yesterday?”

Tony shrugged. “I didn’t really know what to buy. Besides, I always heard drawing calms kids down.”

“Yeah, but Tasha isn’t just any kid, you know?” Clint sniggerd.

“No kidding…”

Tony suddenly fell silent and lifted his hand in the air, motioning for the other three Avengers to stop talking. Then he pointed at the white wolf plush toy that sat next to one of the open drawers. It had a blue thread attached around its neck. The thread disappeared around the corner. Tony motioned for his comrades to keep it quiet and he slowly approached the plush toy. Suddenly the thread straightened as if someone was pulling from the other end and Tony quickly grabbed the plush. He held it tight, even when the thread threatened to break.

After a few seconds of helpless pulling, a small red head appeared around the corner. As soon as mini-Natasha saw the four men, she let go of the thread and ran in the opposite direction, disappearing in another corridor.

“Quickly, catch her!” Tony yelled. A loud high-pitched scream greeted him in the corridor. The Hulk was standing there, with mini-Natasha in the air. Two of his big green fingers held her by the hem of her black sleeveless dress. A red skirt could be found around her small hips and her black panties flashed every now and then with her constant kicking and wiggling.

“You bought her that?” Sam asked, motioning to the dress. It wasn’t what Sam had in mind yesterday, but somehow it suited Natasha.

“I could totally picture kid Nat wearing this,” Clint laughed.

“Отпусти меня!” mini-Natasha yelled but the Hulk kept holding her some two meters above the ground like a kitten by the scruff of the neck. Tony gave her the wolf plush toy. “Волк!” she answered joyfully and took the wolf plush that she held to her heart and squeezed.

“Don’t let her go just yet, Bruce. I want to know what happened first,” Tony said as they were walking back into the living room where Thor had joined them in the meantime. Friday showed them the footage from the last ten minutes on the flat screen above the bar. On the footage, they saw mini-Natasha appear in the living room. She was holding the plush toy as tightly as she was now. Somehow the images seemed to fascinate her and she stopped screaming and moving, just limply hanging between the Hulk’s fingers, her wolf plush in her arms.

On the screen, they could see her eye the shelves above when she couldn’t find anything to eat at floor level. So she had opened the lowest drawer as much as she could and climbed in. Then she had opened the drawer just above and climbed too. At some point, her wolf plush fell from her hands because she couldn’t climb and hold the toy at the same time. So she went down, somehow found a blue thread and tied it around the plush’s neck.

“I didn’t even know we had thread in the kitchen drawers,” Sam let out. Clint and Steve nodded.

The footage resumed and mini-Natasha managed to still have a hold on the thread while climbing up the drawers until she was standing on the kitchen counter.

“Clever,” Clint whistled.

“You’re not supposed to encourage her!” Sam retorted.

On the footage, mini-Natasha was seen looking through the fruit. She did bite in an apple but didn’t seem to like it so she spit it on the counter. Tony looked at the spot where she had spit and sighed. Back on the screen, mini-Natasha had climbed on the toaster and managed to open the closest shelve. She had grabbed the first jar that was inside, which happened to be the peanut butter jar. But she fell from the toaster and the jar, plus a few glasses, fell with her. When everything broke on the floor, she had swiftly climbed down and hid behind the corner. The four Avengers had entered shortly there after.

All heads turned to the girl still held in the air by the Hulk. She didn’t even try to look innocent and pulled out her tongue instead before pouting. Sam was the first to point at her still bandaged foot. “Hey, what happened to the bandage?” Indeed, the bandage was covered in blue snowflakes that mini-Natasha had drawn. “I don’t think the colored pencils were a good idea Tony.”

“Nothing is a good idea with Nat,” Clint said. “She could turn anything into a weapon! It’s a miracle she didn’t strangle any of us or herself by accident with that thread.” He started to undo the thread but she kicked at him and tried to bite him so he gave up.

“Anyway, how did she manage to sneak out of the room without waking me up? She woke up three times during the night, one time to pee and the other two because of nightmares, but I don’t get how she didn’t wake me when she sneaked off,” Sam said and Friday showed them the footage from half an hour ago from Sam’s room.

As Sam said, the footage showed mini-Natasha waking three times in the middle of the night. The first time Sam took her to the bathroom and the other two he managed to calm her down. At 5.30 am, mini-Natasha woke up and slowly sat in the bed. She looked at Sam that slept on the other side of the bed, a good three feet away from her. She quietly exited the covers and slid to the floor. She immediately noticed the shopping bags Tony had left the day before and undid them with as less noise as possible.

She went through the clothes until she found the black dress with the red skirt and put it on (Friday had the decency to blur her small silhouette when she took the tank top off). The Avengers were all amazed by her motor skills and realized that she was used to do things on her own, that her development was really advanced and too mature for her age. She then looked at the toys Tony had bought and hugged the wolf plush for a while. She looked so cute, Clint and Sam couldn’t help but say “awww.”

Then she found the colored pencils and had a blast on one of the walls of the room. “My wall!” Tony and Sam said at the same time and didn’t stay to see the rest of the footage. The other Avengers joined them in Sam’s room and looked at the masterpiece. Six stick silhouettes were drawn in different colors on the left wall. Hulk was still holding mini-Natasha by the top of her dress with two of his fingers. One of he silhouettes was bigger than the others and had been drawn with a green pencil. Another was all blue and held a blue, white and red circle with a star in the middle. Another was in black and had purple glasses. Another was brown and wore red and white. Another was red and gold and had a mask. The last one was in yellow, had a red cape and wings on the head.

“Is this supposed to be us?” Tony asked as he wondered. Mini-Natasha used this moment to swing between Hulk’s fingers and kicked him in the face. It didn’t do anything to him, but she slipped out of his grip and swiftly landed on the floor. Her foot was probably mostly healed because she didn’t wince or limp when she walked. She put her wolf plush on the floor and grabbed Tony’s hand. She then pressed her free hand against the wall, on the red and gold masked silhouette.

“Робот.” Then she pointed at the drawing and at him, back to the drawing and so on a few times.

“I’m not a robot,” Tony said as he knelt next to her smiling. “Tony,” he said slowly each syllable with his hand on his chest. “Tony.”

“To… ni?” mini-Natasha repeated with a thick accent.

“That’s it, Tony.” Then he poked her in the chest. “Natasha.”

She shook her head. “Нет, Наталья.”

Tony though for a moment. “Nat,” he then said, poking her again.

“Nat?” she repeated a few times as if to convince herself. The last time, she seemed to like the sound of that and she repeated with determination “Nat!” Then she pointed at Tony “Toni” then at herself “Nat” and looked at the other Avengers.

She pointed at the black silhouette with glasses on the wall and Clint was next. “Clint.” He did the same gesture as Tony to show he was talking about himself.

“Kli… Klint.” Her accent was thick and rough, but it was understandable. The other Avengers did the same and every time mini-Natasha repeated and memorized their names, pronouncing them in her own way, rolling the ‘rs’ for instance, but they understood who she was talking to. “Stiv, Sam, Brus.”

It’s when it got to Thor that it became complicated because she just wasn’t able to say ‘Thor’ not matter how many times the Asgardian repeated. “For,” she kept saying and after a while, they gave up and went with it. Clint made fun of that, which frustrated the god.

“So, who wants breakfast?” Clint asked eventually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Отпусти меня! (opusti minia) - Let me go / put me down
> 
> Волк (volk) - wolf
> 
> Робот (robot) - robot
> 
> Нет, Наталья (niet, Natalia) - No, Natalia


	4. III

They had no idea what they could give mini-Natasha to eat. Tony had Friday run a complete search about child food and such and until that was complete, Clint decided to make some milkshakes, saying that everybody loved milkshakes, even mini-Nat. As predicted, mini-Natasha was delighted and drank the small strawberry milkshake Clint made. She sat at the kitchen counter on one of the high chairs that Thor had put her on. Volk was on the table next to her. Hulk complained about the too small size of his milkshake and ended up eating all that Clint had prepared before half the Avengers were served. A fight ensued but all the men stopped when they heard mini-Natasha’s laugh. It was genuine and cute and they all smiled, even Hulk.

“Well, breakfast’s covered,” Tony said after all the commotion had died down. “What are we going to do with her? I mean, we can’t let her roam around the tower, not when she’s so young and there are so many dangerous things around.”

“So you suggest we should watch her?” Falcon asked.

Tony nodded and Cap agreed with him. “We’ll take turns. I’m also going to run some tests on the weird substance that we found after the gas settled. It’s not much, but I managed to scrap a bit of yellow powder. Hopefully, it will tell us what exactly triggered the de-aging or at least we could rule out some options.”

Clint suddenly paled. “Guys, where is Nat?”

They all turned to look at the high chair but she was gone and so was Volk.

“Friday?” Tony asked, a little louder than he intended.

“Young Miss Romanoff is currently entering the training room.”

They all cursed under their breath: they had completely forgotten to clean after themselves, leaving the training bots and some weapons lying around, saying they’d clean it later. When they reached the doors to the training room, they heard a loud explosion. Hurrying inside, all six of them, they found mini-Natasha hidden behind one of the bots. She was holding what looked like one of Hawkeye’s arrows but the tip was missing. Her entire face was black and her hands too. She actually looked more surprised than hurt and Clint couldn’t help but laugh. Steve didn’t think it was funny.

“Are you mad? Leaving your explosive arrows lying around?” Cap yelled before taking mini-Natasha in his arms. She didn’t protest, nor did she cry, probably still shocked by what had happened.

“Relax, these are not my real explosive arrows. These are the prototypes Sam had been working on lately. Although, they explode, it’s almost harmless, because we haven’t got the tip right yet. Besides, she probably held it far from her face, it should have done more damage than that.”

But Steve didn’t seem convinced and he walked out of the training room, mini-Natasha still in his arms. “I’ll clean her up and then I’ll take the first watch.” Nobody protested.

And so Steve played hide and seek with mini-Natasha. At some point she hid under his shield and he couldn’t find her and panicked. He ran into the common room where Clint and Hulk were, playing video games against Thor.

“Have you seen mini-Nat?”

They shook their heads. “Don’t tell me you lost her?” Clint asked, exasperated.

All four of them set looking for her while Tony and Sam worked on a cure. They heard a sudden noise, like forks clattering on steel. “Friday, where is she?” Steve asked when the AI was finally able to locate the child.

“The emergency stairwell, Captain Rogers.”

They all headed there and found mini-Natasha laughing her head off at the bottom of the third highest level. She had used Steve’s shield as a sled. Clint decided that it was his time to watch her and took her outside while the other Avengers were supposed to clean the tower up.

While they were gone, Clint had managed to teach mini-Natasha a few words in English like “Stay here”, “Come on”, “Thank you”, “Help” and “Peanut butter.” And when they came back from the mall, because Clint had nothing else to do and no better idea, mini-Natasha had a small backpack in which she could carry Volk and a toy gun that could shoot plastic darts.

Thor was next on watch and managed to keep mini-Natasha entertained for two hours in front of a cartoon. When Tony took a break from working on the cure, he took mini-Natasha for a flight and had her strapped to his chest while they flew around in his armor. When they came back, Steve almost had a heart attack, mini-Natasha’s hair was a mess and she was laughing and wanted to fly again.

Sam stayed with her for lunch and most of the peanut butter jelly sandwich he made ended up on the floor. Mini-Natasha did eat one of them but disappeared again. In the five minutes she was gone before Sam cleaned the kitchen, she had managed to persuade Friday to keep her location secret. Hulk found her in his room, admiring his crystal figurines collection.

But things didn’t stay quiet and another attack occurred. But this time, it wasn’t a strange robot, it was A.I.M. soldiers and they managed to shortcut Tony’s armor before kidnapping him in their jet. Clint went down with a booby arrow. Sam was knocked out and Thor sedated. Cap went down shortly after he said “Friday, make sure the Hulk protects Nat.”

The Hulk had heard the commotion and placed mini-Natasha, bag and toy gun and all under his desk. “Stay here,” he said and she nodded, her face suddenly serious. If she hadn’t been so young, Bruce could have believed she understood the situation. Or maybe she did, after all, they had no idea what she had been through before the Red Room.

But the Hulk was also captured and all the Avengers were taken in the jet to an unknown location while Friday could do nothing but watch and try to reboot Tony’s armor.


	5. IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I hope you're doing great!
> 
> Finally this is the last chapter of that story. It's a bit short, sorry about that, but I had nothing else in mind, so here it is. I hope you enjoyed the story and I'll see you around for other Marvel tales!
> 
> TS

The Avengers were taken into some kind of underground base and separated into individual rooms. Every time, two guards stayed with them inside while two others stood outside the door and a third man came from cell to cell to interrogate each hero. When it was Thor’s turn, the Norse God didn’t say a thing. They basically wanted to know the usual stuff: what kind of weapons and tech Tony had at the tower, where was Fury and what were his plans. But Thor had mostly the impression they actually didn’t want to know any of it, that the Avengers had simply been captured for some villain to take their revenge on them. But since the list of their enemies was quite long, Thor couldn’t guess who had captured them.

The third man left the room after a few minutes during which the Norse God didn’t even break a sweat –ah those Midgardian ineffective torture techniques. The two guards that stayed with him inside the room started softly speaking to each other, clearly bored with their job. But what came next caught their attention.

Suddenly, a red dart shot into the left eye of one of the guards with a small _pew_. The next second, the other guard had also been hit, also in the eye. The _pew_ sound could be heard again. Both men looked up at the vents grate. Thor used that moment to stand up and pushed the men with his elbows since his arms were bound together with a strong chain. Once the two men were knocked out, the other two guarding the door were alerted by the noise and also came in after calling for backup. But Thor also knocked them out. He then looked at the ceiling.

“You can come out now, little one.”

Mini-Nat opened the vents and fell from them, landing on Thor’s head. She held her plastic gun in her small baby hands and the sheepish smile on her face was as bright as the sun.

“Can you help me find the key?” Thor asked and together they managed to free him. Mini-Nat then lunged herself at Thor and cried in his big arms.

“So scared! You gone! Me alone!” she said with the little they had taught her during the last hours. From what Thor could understand, she had followed them and managed to hide aboard the ship, then climbed through the vents and his cell was the first one on her way.

“I’m sorry you had to go through all of this, little one. But it will all be over soon, I promise.”

Thor then wiped the girl’s tears and placed her on his shoulder as she held her plastic gun proudly and he picked up Mjolnir from the next room. Together, they found the other Avengers and it was almost too easy to get out of the underground compound.

Once back in New York, they held a huge party during which Mini-Nat seemed to have the time of her life. Of course, no alcohol was involved; instead there were a lot of games and Disney movies. And when the little girl went to sleep that night, the Avengers really hoped they had given her great memories that she would retain once back to her former self. Of course, she slept with her wolf plush in Steve’s bed and snuggled against the soldier sometime during the night.

The next day, Tony put all his energy and resources into finding a way to turn her back to normal. It took him three days to manage to create a gas that would reverse her de-aging. So they brought her to Tony’s lab and asked her to hide naked under a blanket. Of course, Mini-Nat took that as yet another game and did as she was told, hiding under the blanket and giggling.

“I managed to reverse the gas that had first struck Nat, so hopefully, this will turn her to her normal self.”

He put a vial inside a device and slid it under the blanket. Then he pressed the trigger and a purple gas erupted underneath the sheet. They could hear Mini-Nat cough, but Tony held the blanket down until she stopped moving.

“Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all,” Clint said, a bit concerned.

But then Mini-Nat started to grow and Tony let go of the blanket. She grew until she was the size of an adult woman and her red head appeared on one side while her feet came of out the other. She lay there on the table for a few seconds before she stirred and groaned. When she opened her eyes, she looked around in the room, analyzing her surroundings and sat up, immediately grabbing the blanket so it was covering her intimate parts.

“What happened?” she asked, confused, as she held her head, feeling a massive headache. “Why am I naked under a blanket on a table in your lab, Tony? Did you experiment on me?”

Tony lifted his hands in a defensive stance but it was Sam that spoke. “What do you remember?”

Natasha seemed to think for a moment. “Well, there was the attack and… it’s blurry after that but I remember a wolf, some kind of black and red dress and the fact that I had fun...” She seemed surprised at her own conclusions.

Tony grinned.

“Well, let us tell you what happened.”


End file.
